Apology Accepted
by youdude
Summary: A series of one-shots showing JJ and Hotch dealing with the team after 7.01. First up: JJ/Rossi


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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything- if I did I would probably turn Criminal Minds into a twisted hookup-breakup-hookup-breakup mash-up of Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives **

**A/N: This is part of a series of one-shots about how JJ and Hotch deal with the rest of the team. Next up, JJ/Reid, and then Hotch/Morgan and JJ/Morgan. This is my first Rossi/JJ fic so as you can probably tell I'm still a little hesitant with it**

**XXX**

"All our accounts are in there, including Emily's," JJ said uncomfortably, "Hers take up about three-quarters of the file. Uh, you're the only one left, so I thought I'd…" She trailed off awkwardly, watching quietly as Rossi skimmed the contents of the thick folder.

After a beat of silence he spoke. "You know you're not responsible for tying up the loose ends with paperwork anymore?"

"Old habits die hard."

"That they do," Rossi murmured in agreement. "So…" he started, and JJ groaned internally. _Here we go. _"Fake death hmm?"

Deciding that quick, short responses were the way to do it, she nodded curtly. "Yes?" Purposefully phrasing it as a question, almost daring him to continue.

"A hard thing to keep secret for so long," he commented, looking up and meeting her eyes for the first time.

Sighing, JJ nodded, allowing herself to remember the anger and vengeance clouding Morgan's eyes for months, the determined resolution in Reid at the firing range, the constant pain Garcia's expression had worn. "It was."

Rossi leaned back in his chair and tilted his head to one side. "A brave thing to do, even for a good friend."

Strangely, she could detect no judgement in his words, nor in his face. _Where's the yelling? _she thought, _What happened to the 'I feel so betrayed' and the 'I trusted you'? Where's the anger?_

Knowing she was treading in a potential minefield, JJ decided to push, to gauge his emotional state. "You're all her good friends too," she said carefully, letting him interpret it as he wanted. Morgan would've jumped on it by now: 'You're damn right we are! We deserved to know!'

Rossi did not, taking the comment as she'd suspected he would. "We are," he replied. "But you went above what's required from a good friend."

Again, she didn't know what to say. She could handle anger, denial, feelings of betrayal and guilt, judgement, but he wasn't giving her any of that. Slowly, she lowered herself onto his visitor's seat, eyebrows knitted together. "What, are you implying we're in a relationship?"

She could almost see his ears perk up at that. "You and Emily are in a relationship?"

"No!"

"Ah, well." He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'One can always hope', and her eyes narrowed, but she didn't comment on it.

"Rossi, not to be rude, but is there a point to this?"

"No, nothing." He smiled warmly. "Just wanted to let you know that I know how hard it was for you to keep that secret, and I respect you for it."

JJ swallowed, lowering her defences and allowing herself to be less on-edge. She'd been expecting another confrontation when she entered the room- in fact, that was why she'd offered to bring up the folder in the first place, to get it over with. His easy acceptance was a welcome surprise.

"I appreciate that," she said, smiling at him. "I hope you understand why…I mean, we didn't have a choice-"

He waved a hand. "Of course, don't worry." After a second, he continued carefully, "Morgan and Reid giving you a hard time?"

Her eyes met his in disbelief. "Are you kidding? They're torturing me! Well," she added after a moment's thought, "Morgan not so much now. He just needed to yell it out of his system, I think. But Reid…" she sighed.

He was being very difficult. Not that she blamed him. If the tables were turned, she probably would want to murder him. Again, she remembered his heartbreaking resolve when he decided to learn how to shoot accurately if it killed him…just in case he ever bumped into Doyle again.

To be honest, she though the team's reactions were quite good, considering. Apart from Reid, none of them were mad at her anymore: Morgan, check. Garcia, check. Rossi, check.

Wait…Rossi…

She glanced over at the man who was still reading the folder and cast her mind back to those grim days when she was back on the team and something had changed within everybody, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

_Everybody? _Garcia, definitely. Reid, yes. Morgan, yes.

_Not Rossi. _

Even when Emily walked in, he hadn't looked surprised. He hadn't looked overcome with emotion, or in shock. He had just looked…satisfied. JJ's forehead tightened in anger. "You knew."

Rossi had been scribbling something down on his page in the folder, and looked up at her quiet statement. He raised an eyebrow. "You're angry."

"You knew," JJ repeated, taking it as confirmation.

"And?" he prodded, obviously having decided to brush it off as something trivial. "I'm not judging you for not telling them, am I? Can you judge me?"

"Rossi," she ground out between clenched teeth, jumping up from her seat. "There is a time for secrets, and there is a time to tell the truth. The latter was _yesterday_. When Hotch and I said we knew, you should have spoken up!"

"Hotch knew I knew," he replied calmly.

"He _told _you?"

Putting down his pen and staring at the irate woman, Rossi looked confused. "No…I figured it out for myself. And Morgan and Reid would have too, if they were thinking with their heads and not their emotions."

JJ let out a groan, sliding back down onto the chair. "Were we that obvious?"

"In a word, yes." Pursing his lips, he amended, "Not obvious to anyone who wasn't a profiler, but…well, whenever anything to do with Emily was mentioned, neither you nor Hotch looked pained until one of the others did, and then both of you looked like someone was stabbing you. Hard."

JJ shrugged. "Can you really blame us? And you could have slipped something to the team, you know! We couldn't say anything, legally, but when you worked it out you could have given them a clue to, I don't know, pay more attention to Hotch and me!"

Rossi's eyes dropped down, and she saw him swallow. "I wasn't sure if it was just some form of denial that was manifesting itself…I couldn't put them through that, not if it turned out to be false."

Seeing the normally tough profiler and getting a sense of the despair he must have felt before he figured out the truth, JJ felt guiltier than she had ever felt. "I'm sorry, Rossi."

"For what?" he asked genuinely. "You did what you had to."

She met his eyes before nodded slowly, getting up and walking towards the door. One hand on the door, she cleared her throat awkwardly. "I, uh, I know why I did it, and I know it was a good reason. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had to. But for what it's worth…I really am sorry for putting you through that."

He let the door swing shut before closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair.

"Apology accepted, JJ."

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**XXX**

**This wasn't where I wanted it to go, until I rewatched the episode and realized that Rossi really doesn't look anything other than satisfied and almost like he expected it, so this was born. I tried to keep them in character but it was harder than I expected. I welcome constructive praise and constructive criticism! **

**And was that an epic premiere or was that an epic premiere? **

**~Maddie **


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